Good question... Boredom? A feeling that the future has been set for them by the adults, who have different values, without consulting the kids? A desire for true attention? Anger at the cloying web of rules that surround kids? A feeling of value-lessness that comes from constant exposure to commercialism? Perhaps the real cultural criminals are the intrusive commercialisers, the complacent parents, the absent or preoccupied parents, the boring and unthinking robotic adults...
To call it all criminal vandalism is only to indicate how we adults label the behaviors, but our labels don't help us to understand what lies behind the behaviors. Thoughts? Lawry > -----Original Message----- From Keith Hudson > My son's house is now in danger of being burned to the ground by yet > another outbreak of new fires a lot closer to the centre of Sydney, so > FutureWorkers must excuse my concern. > > The police have arrested 15 teenagers and young adults, but consider that > many more have been involved. No doubt the first few fires had natural > causes such as lightning strikes, but the tally of well over 100 more must > bespeak human origins in most of the subsequent ones -- as, indeed, the > authorities believe. > > At the risk of being attacked again, I want to ask a question: "In a > civilised country such as Australia, what could provoke such criminality?" > > Just what explanation can anybody have other than there is > obviously such a > lack of any feeling of responsibility and community among what seems to be > a significiant number of young males? According to orthodox sociology > theory, this is something that simply could not happen in one of the most > prosperous countries in the world with the most generous welfare state. > > Keith Hudson > > > > __________________________________________________________ > “Writers used to write because they had something to say; now > they write in > order to discover if they have something to say.” John D. Barrow > _________________________________________________ > Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > _________________________________________________
